Memorial Medical Center plans to resume kidney transplants in August, 10 months after the high-profile program became inactive.

“We’re really delighted to bring this service back to the community,” said Charles Callahan, vice president of operations for Memorial’s parent organization, Memorial Health System. “Memorial exists to help people live longer and healthier lives.”

Memorial’s kidney and pancreas transplant program went on inactive status in October after a physician who cared for transplant patients retired. The hospital was unable to replace him in time to prevent a temporary shutdown.

Memorial worked with Springfield Clinic to recruit Dr. Brad West, who will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Dr. Sumanta Mitra, who had been associated with Memorial’s transplant program since its inception in 1973.

West is completing a fellowship in transplant nephrology at the University of Chicago and has purchased a home in Springfield, said Dr. Edward Alfrey, a transplant surgeon at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine who runs Memorial’s transplant program.

The last kidney transplant at Memorial took place in August, and the last pancreas transplant took place in September.

About 220 downstate residents were on Memorial’s waiting list for kidneys and were able to transfer to lists maintained at other transplant centers. Most transferred to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, and about 80 transferred to the waiting list at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria.

Alfrey said 12 of Memorial’s patients received kidney transplants elsewhere during the inactive period.

Forty patients who opted not to transfer their cases weren’t eligible for transplants elsewhere during the program’s inactive period, and 103 patients maintained dual listings with the St. Louis hospital and Memorial.

As a result, Memorial expects to have about 140 patients on its list when the program reactivates, Alfrey said. It’s important to provide a convenient transplant center in Springfield for area residents, he said.

“Transplantation provides a tremendous benefit in improving patients’ health,” he said. “We are the only center in southern Illinoi, and the only center south of Peoria.”

The 15 Memorial staff members associated with the transplant program weren’t laid off after the program became inactive, Callahan said. The hospital knew it wanted to restart the program, and the staff was needed to help patients transfer records to other programs, he said.

Between 21 and 41 kidney transplants have taken place each year since 2004 at Memorial. About 75 percent of the transplants involve kidneys from people who have died. The other 25 percent represent kidneys from living donors – often relatives of recipients.

The survival rate for the Springfield program over the past 2 ½ years has been 93 percent. Alfrey said that’s similar to the national average “and almost identical to the outcome at the Mayo Clinic and the University of Chicago.”

Page 2 of 3 - When transplants are taking place, the program is a modest money-maker for Memorial, Callahan said.

Most kidney transplants are funded by Medicare, which can cover people younger than 65 who have end-stage kidney failure.

Alfrey said he expects to double the number of transplants at Memorial in about five years. That is because West will have more time for outreach to primary care doctors and to patients in downstate Illinois who might otherwise travel to other transplant centers in Illinois and in Indiana, Iowa and Missouri, Alfrey said.

He added that high rates of diabetes and high blood pressure are resulting in more kidney failure, more people on dialysis and more in need of kidney transplants.

Callahan said, “There is going to be continuing demand for this type of care.”

In addition to Alfrey, SIU surgeon Dr. Hilary Sanfey also is trained to perform kidney transplants. Transplant surgeon Dr. Timothy O’Connor left SIU and the Springfield program in fall 2007 to join the Peoria program, but Alfrey said O’Connor’s departure had nothing to do with the inactivation of the Springfield program.

Callahan said Memorial expects to receive approval from the Virginia-based United Network for Organ Sharing so the hospital can resume transplants as soon as August.

That is good news for Aaron Rosa of Decatur. The 33-year-old warehouse worker goes through dialysis three times a week, for more than four hours each time, so he can survive congenital problems that led to kidney failure.

He was hoping to receive a transplant at Memorial from his 30-year-old sister, a Seattle resident, about the time the program became inactive.

“I was looking forward to getting it out of the way,” Rosa said.

He decided not to start the process of getting on transplant lists at St. Louis or Peoria because his wife was pregnant at the time and the travel would have been inconvenient.

He said he now hopes to receive the transplant from his sister in August or September at Memorial so he can avoid the need for dialysis and “have a more normal life.”

Dean Olsen can be reached at 788-1543.

Kidney transplant facts

*Hospitals are paid about $60,000 from Medicare for most kidney transplants and the related hospital stay. Medicare and private insurance connected with the transplant recipient pay the average $26,000 in costs donors incur.

*Transplants save money for Medicare in the long run because dialysis costs Medicare $53,000 to $72,000 a year per patient.

*Total Medicare spending for dialysis totaled almost $17 billion in 2006; total Medicare spending on all patients with end-stage renal disease totaled $22.7 billion, 6.4 percent of all Medicare spending.

*Patients who receive kidney transplants generally live seven to 15 years longer than patients on dialysis.

Page 3 of 3 - *Nationwide, 79,800 people are waiting for donated kidneys. In Illinois, 3,751 were waiting for kidneys as of May.

*Nationwide, 4,514 people died in 2008 while waiting for kidneys. The figure in Illinois was 235.

*The number of kidney transplants that have been conducted at Memorial Medical Center since 1999: